Reducer/Flattener for ZS80ED???

[AlexxxAA]

Does anyone know what reducer/flattener will work well with the zenithstar 80mm?

My local dealer doesn't really know which one is compatible with my telescope

Thanks in advance to everyone.

[E621Keith]

Have you check William Optics website? They might have flattener for you ZS80 since it is a WO scope.

I have not used a flattener on my scope, so I can only tell you what I've read. Televue TRF2008 seems to be quite popular for people using 80mm scope. The TS universal flattener should work with scope between f5-f8, as should the Hotech SCA. It seems getting the right chip to flattener distance is just as important as the flattener itself.

Did you speak to people at OPT in Oceanside, from what I gathered they seems to be quite knowledgeable. Hope this helps

[Mike Hawtin]

For what it's worth I have recently returned a WO F/F reducer III which was bought for imaging with a WO Megrez 80mm triplet, about half the field was unusable on my QHY8 due to distortion (star images were streaks). Chip to flattener distance was not the cause either, I used a helical focuser as a spacer and took test images in half millimeter increments.

[AlexxxAA]

Thanks guys. yea im not sure what im going to do yet... I guess im going to try it out just how it is for now. i think i might go to OPT tomorrow and ask about the issue as well...

Hey mike, are you using your megrez just as is? or did you change the reducer for a different one?

[Mike Hawtin]

Alex,

I did try a different reducer but found that vignetting was such a big issue that I no longer use the Megrez for imaging. The problem is the scope has so much back focus, presumably to accommodate a binoviewer that even at its native F/7 the fully illuminated field is only about 12 or 13 mm diameter. I imagine all of the short tube refracrors will suffer from this problem, with flat fielding at F/7 with an APS size chip my Megrez is effectively operating at about F/15!